BEST IN QUEENSLAND

CAIRNS MUSEUM REDEVELOPMENT BEST IN STATE

2017 GAMAA Awards Ceremony. L-R Museum Manager Suzanne Gibson, Curator and Queensland Museum MDO Dr Joanna Wills, CHS and Museum Historian Dr Dawn May, Museums and Galleries Qld Executive Director Rebekah Butler

The Cairns Historical Society has been awarded “Best Museum and Gallery Project” in Queensland for its redevelopment of the Cairns Museum.

The Gallery and Museum Achievement Awards (GAMAAs) are an annual award that recognises excellence in the Museum and Gallery sector across Queensland.

The Historical Society entered the Cairns Museum in the 2017 GAMAAs as the end result of a 7-year process of rethinking and reimagining a Museum for Cairns. The GAMAA judges noted that the reimagining of the Cairns Museum represented an enormous undertaking for a volunteer-run Society, supported by funding from Cairns Regional Council.

Society President Clive Skarott said the Society was honoured to receive the Best Project GAMAA.

‘This award is recognition for everyone who gave their heart and soul to realise the Cairns Museum – our volunteer curatorial, research and photographic teams, the community groups and families who assisted, the Traditional Owners who came on board, our members, our supporters in Cairns Regional Council, our internal management team and our professional consultant team’, he said.

‘The Museum is the end result of a huge creative and community effort, all in the name of Cairns.’

Museums and Galleries Queensland (M&G QLD) Executive Director Rebekah Butler praised the planning undertaken by the Society

‘The Society’s process for the ‘reimagining’ included investigating the role of a Museum in a regional city, Cairns’ existing cultural infrastructure and the significance of the existing CHS collection. It created a contemporary thematic framework ‘Living in the Tropics’ that became the foundation for delivering a Museum about the past and the present of Cairns as a tropical city, rather than a more generic Museum about the olden days.’

Museum Manager Suzanne Gibson said the Museum was worth the effort

‘Museums matter. If we don’t tell our stories here in Cairns, no-one else is going to’, she said.

‘We have to thank the Council for recognising this and for backing the Society to create something special’.